Installation manual

Page 7
Initial Walk-thru
The initial walk-thru provides an opportunity to explain the lift process to your customer. This is a good
time to evaluate the project and complete or review the Project Information Prole.
The time during the walk-thru with your customer is important. It can help your customer feel more
relaxed with you, the crew and the lift process.
There are many things to look for when walking a job that will determine the amount of yardage the crew
will be able to install each night.
Í The two most important factors as in any carpet replacement are
■ Difculty in the rip-up
■ Amount of oor prep
Difcult rip-ups are much more challenging in an occupied environment. With the close proximity of the
furniture and equipment you will need to use small striping machines. Therefore make sure you do a pull
test (using a carpet knife and pliers) when doing the 1
st
job walk-thru. The pull test will need to be done in
a number of places. You are attempting to determine how taxing the rip-up will be as well as get an idea
of what the sub-oor looks like. Try not to perform the pull test in a high trafc areas where the carpet
generally comes up the easiest.
Í Find an area in a corner or under a desk, for two reasons:
■ Areas that do not get foot trafc are typically the toughest to get up.
■ There will not be an unsightly area or trip hazard until the carpet is replaced.
The amount of oor prep needed cannot typically be determined until the carpet is actually up and out
of the way. All you can do is make your best educated guess from the information acquired during the
pull-up and try to prepare yourself accordingly. This is another reason to perform the pull test in multiple
locations - the sub-oor can vary from area to area.
The better informed and prepared the installation crew, the less likely unexpected oor prep will slow the
project to a crawl. Which if not bid accordingly can seriously affect the success and protability of the
project.
When initially walking the oor with the facility manager, the more imperfections you bring to his or her
attention, the shorter the nightly punch list and the better off you will be at the end of the project. Many
of these projects have had things that are not correct and gone unnoticed until the installation of the
new carpet. Then everything sticks out like a sore thumb. These things can be easily pointed out during
the initial walk-thru, but obviously everything cannot be detected. Therefore, it is the crew leader’s
responsibility to walk the area to be completed the next night and point out any of imperfections to the
customer before the crew ever gets started.